Daily Archives: April 11, 2013

In This For Good

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IN THIS FOR GOOD

“So they left the mountain called Olives and returned to Jerusalem. It was a little over a half a mile. They went to the upper room they had been using as a meeting place: Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, Judas, son of James.

“They agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the women included. Also Jesus’ mother, Mary, and His brothers.” Acts 1:12-14 (The Message).

This seems like a pathetically small group of followers after three years and a spectacular life of miracles and teaching like no other rabbi. God had once said to His people when they felt overwhelmed by their circumstances, “Who despises the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:10 (NIV).

The people of God had returned from exile and, after many years, they had finally rebuilt their temple, but it was an inferior temple to the one built by Solomon. They wept but God reassured them that the glory of the latter temple would exceed the glory of the former. Of course, He was referring prophetically to the human temple He would occupy after Jesus’ work of restoration through the cross.

These few people in the upper room were now right in line for the fulfilment of that prophecy. They were few in number but their potential was huge because of the one fact which Luke noted. They were in this together. Together they prayed and waited for the promise to be fulfilled.

Adam’s decision to go it alone had severed him from God and shattered the image of God in him, the oneness (ECHAD) that reflected the oneness between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one…” Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV). It was imperative that this small group of people be of one heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit could have unrestricted access to their spirits.

At the beginning of human history, when the people banded together to set up a false religion in rebellion against God, God said, “‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.'” Genesis 11:8 (NIV).

In few days’ time Babel would be reversed. Their unity would be the environment into which the Holy Spirit would come to set them on the path of restoring what Adam had destroyed in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus’ prayer just before His arrest gives us a glimpse into His heart. His final request was “‘that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.'” John 17:21 (NIV).

This unity is initiated by the Spirit but maintained by the mutual submission of God’s people. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:2, 3 (NIV).

These disciples had decided to stick together, to do life together and to go it together and in that decision and their actions that followed, they paved the way for the Spirit’s coming and His work in and through them.

They had made their decision – they were in this together, for good!

His Last Words

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HIS LAST WORDS

“These were His last words. As they watched, He was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there staring into the empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared — in white robes! They said, ‘You Galileans! — why do you just stand here looking up to an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly — and mysteriously — as He left.'” Acts 1:9-11 (The Message).

Jesus’ last and recorded words? Yes, but never His last words! He may no longer be speaking in an audible voice here but He continues to speak to us, for us and through us. He promised us and His word guarantees that He will speak to us because He is alive.

In John 10:27 He assured His followers, “‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.'” His disciples had to learn a new skill when He left them because they were used to His physical presence. They had to learn to discern His voice among all the voices that spoke in their inner being. Through His indwelling Spirit they continued to follow Him and soon recognised His voice in their hearts.

Jesus continues to speak for us in the Father’s presence. He speaks with a double voice. “…Because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them,” Hebrews 7:24b, 25 (NIV).

He speaks on our behalf to the Father as our faithful High Priest, but He also speaks with another powerful voice, the voice of his blood. “But you have come to Mount Zion…to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22a, 24 (NIV). Abel’s blood cried for vengeance; Jesus’ blood cries for mercy.

Jesus is also continually speaking through us. He assured His disciples that they would be His witnesses. This is something different from the obligation put on new believers as part of their mantle as Christians. You know the story…when you came to Christ you were told, “Now you must read your Bible, pray. go to church and witness,” like the four wheels of an automobile. At least, that was what I was told. To me, that made up the sum total of what it meant to be a Christian.

The first three obligations were fairly easy for a disciplined person but the fourth! That’s where I came unstuck. My attempts at witnessing got me rebuffs that turned me off! It wasn’t working for me, so I clammed up. I wasn’t sure what I was witnessing to, anyway.

But Jesus did not give His disciples instructions to witness — He said that they would BE His witnesses. Now that’s a different ball game. He did not tell us to go around pounding people with the Bible. His Spirit does not give us power to witness but power to live so that we can be His witnesses. That’s the subtle difference. The Book of Acts is the story of people whose lives were so transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit that they turned the world upside down.

Jesus told His disciples that their love for one another and their unity would convince the world of the truth of His coming. What if His church today took Him seriously and began to listen, really listen, to His voice? He might be speaking a very different message from the one we think we are hearing!

A Handout…?

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A HANDOUT …?

“One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one called Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a hand-out. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Look here.’ He looked up, expecting to get something from them.

“Peter said, ‘I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!’ He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankle joints became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked.” Acts 3:1-8 (The Message).

Such an everyday event…beggar asks for money, hand in the purse, toss him a few coins, go on their way! But for Peter and John and the rest of the church it proved to be the turning of the tide for them all.

There is no hint in Luke’s record of how long the new-born church enjoyed the favour of the people of Jerusalem…a few weeks a few months, perhaps even a year or two, at the most. They were still living like Jews, keeping to their dietary laws, observing the feasts and going to the Temple for their daily prayers.

Up to this point they had done little to rattle the cages of the Jewish religious leaders. To all intents and purposes the fuss surrounding Jesus the Nazarene had died down. Many people from their ranks had believed but didn’t seem to be making waves until a beggar at the Temple gate asked for a hand-out.

How many times had Peter and John walked past this man on their way into the Temple? Sometimes the very familiarity of a person’s plight dulls our ears to his cry. Perhaps the apostles were so used to feeling helpless that they simply ignored the man and went on their way after dropping a few coins into his outstretched hand.

What made this occasion different? What awakened in them the awareness of a new disposition, a new presence in their inner being, a new confidence in the Jesus whom they had seen doing the very miracle this man desperately needed? For them is was a light bulb moment!

They realised in a flash that this man needed more than a hand-out. They had been elevated to the same position as sons as their Master had been. They could do what Jesus did because the same Spirit that worked through Jesus was in them. This time they had no money but they had something far better – the very nature, disposition and power of the Healer.

Compassion and confidence exploded into faith that declared, ‘Get up and walk.’ Action matched command; Peter helped him to his feet and the miracle was complete! The kingdom of God was in action, restoring a man born into the realm of a fallen world into which Jesus had stepped to undo what Satan had done.

That was the moment when these followers of the man the religious hierarchy had crucified as a blasphemer set the cat among the pigeons. They could no longer be ignored or tolerated because they were now challenging the very foundations of their religion and their power…

God’s Covenant Word

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GOD’S COVENANT WORD

“‘All the prophets from Samuel on down said the same thing, said most emphatically that these days would come. These prophets, along with the covenant God made with your ancestors, are your family tree. God’s covenant-word to Abraham provides the text. ‘By your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ But you are first in line: God, having raised up His Son, sent Him to bless you as you turn, one by one, from your evil ways.'” Acts 3:24-26 (The Message).

This is a Jewish setting. Peter was speaking to Jews in their homeland, in their capital city. Abraham was their ancestor with whom God had made a covenant and through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. His hearers were first in line for the privilege of believing in and receiving their Messiah. Their prophets had foretold His coming to their nation and it was their expectation that was fulfilled at that time.

What does all this have to do with us Gentiles? What part do we have in this event and this promise? Do we have a place in God’s promises to the Jews or have we hijacked what is not legitimately ours?

Paul addresses these questions in his letter to the Roman church. It is obviously an old and perennial issue.

Firstly the matter of our claim to what was promised to the Jews through Abraham. Gentiles have no claim to natural descent from Abraham but Paul argues that we have another claim which is just as legitimate and even more secure. It is not circumcision which secures our place in God’s covenant but faith in God’s promises that makes us spiritual children of Abraham.

Just as Abraham entered into covenant with God by throwing in his lot with Him and doing life His way, so every other person, Jew or Gentile, who follows Abraham’s example, is Abraham’s offspring. Not every Jew is a spiritual offspring of Abraham even though he may claim Abraham as his father.

Jesus had the same issue with the Pharisees who prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham, yet refused to recognise Him. (Their behaviour negated their claim and Jesus called them the children of the devil). Therefore we can rightfully participate in the benefits of God’s covenant with Abraham if we have entered his family line by trusting God as he did.

The second issue is – have we, the Gentiles, replaced the Jews in God’s scheme of things because they forfeited their claim to the covenant promises? There are some who arrogantly claim that God has finished with the Jews because they rejected their Messiah and put Him to death.

This is ridiculous for several reasons: The first believers were Jews; the church was born in a Jewish community; all the apostles were Jews; many Jews from all over the Roman Empire, together with Gentile believers, made up the church. There are Jews all over the world today who have received Jesus as their Messiah. What Paul did say was that ethnic, gender and social distinctions fall away in God’s kingdom, that Jesus broke down the dividing wall of prejudice and hatred between Jew and Gentile and recreated a new system of unity in Himself.

Those who claim that God no longer has a plan for the Jews have not understood His grace. Every Jew has the same opportunity to believe in his Messiah as every Gentile has. God has not cut them off. Instead He has opened the door to include anyone who joins Abraham as a member of God’s family through faith in Jesus.

Just as Abraham launched himself on God’s word and became the channel of God’s indescribable grace to the world, so every one of us, Jew and Gentile, who follow his example, perpetuate the same blessing to our generation and they in turn to the next.

God Knew

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GOD KNEW

“‘And now friends, I know you had no idea what you were doing when you killed Jesus, and neither did your leaders. But God who, through the preaching of all the prophets had said all along that His Messiah would be killed, knew exactly what you were doing and used it to fulfil His plans.'” Acts 3:17-18 (The Message).

It’s a mystery – this thing called the sovereignty of God! He did not create human beings to be puppets and yet, through our choices and even our failures, He works out His purposes in human lives and human history — and He holds us accountable for what we do.

When we take a step back and consider the life of Jesus as a whole, it becomes clear that He was not a victim of religious hatred or prejudice, nor was He a martyr for some cause He was championing. His life and His death were purposeful.

How many times did He have the opportunity to avoid the cross had He just kept His mouth shut instead of speaking out against the religious leaders to arouse their rage and hatred? It was almost as though He were deliberately out to get Himself killed — and He was. Yet His intention was not primarily to provoke them to murder but to expose their hearts.

He was never afraid or reticent to speak the truth if there was a chance that people would see themselves as God saw them and turn to Him for mercy and forgiveness. The fact that it had the opposite effect on the Pharisees was an exposure of what was really in them.

All of this played into God’s hands and contributed to His grand plan to offer His Son up as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. Men had to kill Jesus. We had to kill Him to silence His exposure of our hearts and to confirm our guilt before God. We thought that, by killing Jesus we could get God off our backs once and for all but instead, He came back from the dead and now graciously offer us forgiveness and a place in His family and in His kingdom we don’t deserve.

This sounds great when we are talking about God’s great redemption plan, but what about our puny lives? How do we fit into the bigger picture? How do our ignorant blunders and even our deliberate rebellion serve His purposes? I can’t answer that question. No one this side of eternity can.

But have you noticed how God takes broken, messed-up people who receive His mercy and start all over again and, through them, rescues other broken and messed-up lives and then, through them, He uses other broken and messed-up people and…? How is that for God’s sovereignty!

It’s not a good thing to rebel against God, throw over His laws and spit in His face. It doesn’t faze Him but it certainly ruins us. When we have finished running, hiding and trying to evade Him, He will get us anyway. Why not turn and run to Him? That’s what he wants more than anything else for you.

David tried to run from God but it didn’t work. “Where can I go from your Spirit?” he asked. “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven you are there, If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:7-10 (NIV).

No matter how guilty we are, God invites us to turn to Him. He intentionally had Jesus killed, using man’s hatred for Him to sacrifice His life for us so that we can return to Him, all our rebellious disobedience spent, and find acceptance, forgiveness and a safe place in His home.